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现代英文选评注 The Great Fire of 1945一九四五年大火记
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Margaret Shedd (1900—1986)
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本文选自《1947年奥·亨利奖金得奖小说集》（Prize Stories of 1947, The O. Henry Awards）。《奥·亨利奖金得奖小说集》由专家评选，自1919年起，每年刊行一本，为一有历史地位之著名短篇小说选集。本文作者玛格丽特·谢特为美国女作家，有长短篇小说多种问世。
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原题《一九四五年大火记》，文中叙一巨宅被焚之时，宅中女主人仓皇逃出（她已与其夫别居，其子战死，生活本甚孤寂），今身处火场之外，目睹火势蔓延，巨屋被毁，勾起种种回忆。本文于火景描写之中，参以心理活动，勾勒深刻，描写生动。此处所录，因篇幅所限，略加节删（如关于其儿子之处，均已节去），但大体俱在，仍不失为一短篇杰作也。
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Standing on the high ground behind the house, she saw that one small flame had separated itself from the matrix of fire within the house and was gliding up the wall. It licked the shingles nimbly and delicately, and, still only a golden tongue, found the window of her room. She herself had left that window open and leaned out of it helplessly calling help before she ran from the room down the hot stairs out of the house to the earth never more friendly than then.
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● 女主人于小说开幕时，已站立在屋后高地，全篇小说描写，即由此观点出发。
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● matrix：母体，模型，原体。从它那里，别的东西可以分化出来的。matrix of fire within the house：屋内之火，本是浑然一体，今有一小股火焰，离母体而独立，缘壁而上。这股火焰，作者比之为“金黄色的舌头”。它的动作是“舔”（licking），而且舔得轻巧（delicately）灵活（nimbly）。
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● shingles：护墙木板（小木板排列成行，用以护墙，或铺屋顶）。found the window of her room：她的卧室在楼上，火从外面墙上爬上去，找到了它的窗。
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● had left that window open：她“刚才”把窗开了，探身出去叫救命，后来就没有关。本文所用动词时态，大致用“过去式”时，即为当前之事；用“过去完成式”时，表明过去之事。
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● never more friendly than then：形容earth。她奔出卧室，冲下热楼梯，逃到地上；“地对于她的友善，从未甚于此时者”：她那时觉得土地比任何时候都待她好。
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Up to now the house had still looked quite natural. From the little hill where she stood, too dumfounded to speak or call out any more, it had seemed to be alight for some grand secret festival. The flame which had darted out of a cellar window or a rathole or who knows what tiny aperture and had run swift as a lizard up to the second story had found its kind; and with the flourish of grand finale the vaporous curtain of smoke puffs was transfigured into billows of flame-shot black and then into the pure roaring triumph of fire, fire. From down the valley she heard the engines, but they had a long way to come.
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● looked quite natural：起初火势不大，房子看上去还没有走样，还像一幢房子。
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● dumfounded：慌乱。alight：点燃起来。festival：节日庆祝。secret：大抵指邪教或秘密团体举火以行庆祝仪式一事。
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● darted：急射。火从小孔里喷出，其势甚锐。这个缘墙而上的火焰从哪里来的呢？可能是从地窖小窗，或老鼠洞（rathole），或是不知别的什么小窟窿里（aperture）钻出来的（她自己也没看清楚）。
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● 火焰初升时，吞吐伸缩，故以“舌”为喻。今一气窜上，轻快迅捷，又以“壁虎”（lizard）为喻。its kind：它的同类，也是火。爬上去的火焰，到了二楼，又和二楼的火内外相应。
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● flourish（音乐名词）：盛奏。finale（意大利文）：最后之乐章。音乐奏至最后一章，百音齐鸣，气象万千，今火势之盛，亦复如此。
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● vaporous：雾气状的。transfigured：形状变易。billows：波涛。shot：本用于丝织物，经线用一种颜色，纬线用另一种颜色，交织而成的。flame-shot black：黑烟中夹杂着火焰。烟气笼罩，本如雾幕；忽火烟翻腾，红黑间杂，声势汹涌；继而黑烟退尽，纯然炽火（pure）声如怒吼（roaring）。气势雄壮（triumph），火势之盛极矣。
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● engines=fire engines：救火车。山下有救火车声，但不能立刻赶到。
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The house, which she could see was going to be burned to its bones before any help could reach it, was the summing up of her life. Logically included in the slant of its roof, its closet spaces, its lonely distance from the village, was everything that had ever happened to the woman, and included as well were all the other houses she had lived in.
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● burned to its bones：烧到骨头里去；烧完。
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● summing up：总括。这幢房子把她的一生（回忆）都包括在内了（房子烧掉，把许多可以引起过去生活的联想的东西都烧掉了）。
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● 第二句动词（was included）在先，主语（everything）在后，为加强logically included之用。everything…：这个女人所经历的一切，都包括在这座房子里。包括在内，是理之当然，故曰logically。但是作者并不说“包括在这座房子里”，而把“房子”这一概念分成三点来说，一是“屋顶的斜度”，二是“壁橱里的空地位”，三是“房子僻处乡间的形势”。这三点恐怕是房子主人随便想起来的，但是当一个人想起一座房子的时候，很少会空空洞洞地想到房子而已，很容易想起它的屋顶是怎么的，壁橱里可以放些什么东西，左右邻居又是怎么的等等。
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● and以下另一从句，结构如前，她以前所住过的房子也都包括在里边——过去生活的回忆，重重叠叠，层层交织，不可分割，现在一起都要烧去了。
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When, shortly before, the housekeeper had come pounding on her door, screaming, beating on the wood, “Wake up, wake up quick, Mrs. James! The furnace has burst, the house is afire, get up quick!” She had had time to get the bracelet and bring it out. She had, half consciously, gone to the window and called for help. Then she had wrapped herself in a heavy gray dressing gown and had looked around the room deciding whether to take out her fur coats and some letters. In her mind’s eye she had seen the bracelet lying in the top drawer of her green French Provencal dressing table along with the other trinkets. She had had time to think, No, I won’t take it; leave it where it is. So, remembering now the bracelet’s earlier associations, which for many years she had forgotten, she was more glad than ever that it was gone. She was honest enough to admit that life had failed her. And as between apathy and pain she had made her choice.
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● 女主人面对大火，回首前尘，想起了丈夫于某年圣诞节所送给她的一只手镯（bracelet）。手镯象征了他们婚姻生活的幸福，现在他们的婚姻既已破裂，她不愿意再想起这只手镯，也不愿意把它从火里救出来。本段之前，原文有三段回忆描写，今已节去。
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